For the first time, we linked up the work of our capability team and knowledge management team to create an activity around the day that delivered a webinar showcasing grassroots activities, as well as a Knowledge Hub Q&A providing a range of views of what resilience starts at home means for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. It was great to have Adrian Sains from Resilient Kurilpe, Elise Remling from the University of Canberra, and Sophie Yates from Australian National University talking about Kitchen Conversations on the south coast of NSW.
Space is the final frontier, and these were the voyages of the USS AIDR when we hosted a webinar on Space Weather. Many people have on their bucket lists to see the Northern or Southern lights. We are struck by awe of the power of our geomagnetic fields dancing in front us. But there is a dark side, and this fascinating webinar featuring David Mitchell from the Mount Burnett Observatory, Allison Kealy from Swinburne University of Technology, and Cassie Marshall from the Bureau of Meteorology, helped us understand what happens when the sun has a bad day.
We were fortunate to be part of a workshop conducted by Zoe Darcy and Gretel Evans from Monash University looking at local government capability. They have been working to develop a local government capability framework, and it’s looking pretty good. This is important work, which we are keeping more than one eye on given our strategic priority of local government capability uplift.
Food security is the focus of Sustain Australia, and it was great to meet Nick Rose and Mia Cox to discuss ways we can work together. They have been building a strong local government community of practice on food security, which is critically important to disaster resilience, when taking a systemic risk approach. We furthered our engagement with Natural Resource Management Regions Australia – the peak body that supports regional environmental management. Their focus on nature-based solutions for disaster resilience and natural environment recovery has resonated strongly with us. We met with Sarah Hoyal and Bek Christensen to explore ways of promoting each other’s work, and areas of collaboration.
The issue of civil preparedness for conflict is emerging, with the Parliamentary Inquiry. I have been aware for some time, through engagement with the European Union, that there is a much stronger focus on civil preparedness across the European Union because of the conflict in Ukraine. We are preparing a submission for the Parliamentary Inquiry into Australia’s national civil preparedness and resilience, and as part of that, I have been speaking with former colleagues who have worked or are working in Ukraine. The sobering reality of what they are experiencing was sheeted home to me, when one of the conversations was cut short as they had to head to their bomb shelter because of an air raid.
We have been asked to provide guidance into a European Union project proposal on helping embed planning for animals in disaster. This is being led by the University of Applied Sciences Velika Gorica in Croatia, and when they were undertaking a literature scan, the Planning for Animals Handbook came up, and they were very interested in getting our input to the project
The World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Resilience and Recovery released a report on Disaster Damage and Loss Systems. We were very pleased to see Disaster Mapper featured in the report as a tool for community education and learning. Sometimes we forget how powerful such a tool is. I am finding that there are many references to Disaster Mapper from a lot of citizen publications, which is a fascinating use of the data.
Our brilliant interns, Rose, Arathi, and Fiona finished up this month. They helped us with the Delphi process for the disaster risk reduction handbook, and a new product, launching this month – Resilience Digest – which is a showcase of practice from the Resilient Australia Awards. It has been a delight to have them around, and we are so pleased to be able to give young people an opportunity to do something meaningful as part of their learning and course and also give them something tangible to point to and put on their resume. It’s all part of helping strengthen the next generation of disaster risk reduction experts.
I have been listening to an extraordinary album, Fudge, by one of my favourite artists, Michael Kiwanuka. He had a severe stroke while performing, and there is a chance he may not be able to compose and perform again, such was the strength of the stroke. It is a beautiful record and embodies resilience.